disinformationhttp://www.desmogblog.com/taxonomy/term/6473/all
enDrop Some Climate Reality Into the Web of Denial Mythshttp://www.desmogblog.com/2013/03/03/drop-some-climate-reality-web-denial-myths
<div class="field field-name-field-bimage field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img src="http://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/styles/blog_teaser/public/blogimages/Screen%20shot%202013-03-01%20at%204.52.32%20PM.png?itok=Ye3QExic" width="200" height="96" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">If you spend any time at all reading online articles or blogs about climate change (and of course you do, you’re here), and you like to punish yourself by scrolling down to the comments, you know how quickly the anti-science shysters and merchants of doubt pounce.<br /><br />
Having posted hundreds upon hundreds of climate-related items over the past decade or so, I can practically predict the canned comments before they’re posted. Pay any attention to them, and you’ll pretty quickly come to realize that the same talking points surface again and again and again.<br /><br />
There’s a good reason for this – the climate denial communications machine is very well funded, and has plenty of shadowy channels to help funnel this disinformation into comments sections and Facebook feeds and Twitter and everything else.</span></p>
<p>Well now there’s a great new weapon that the pro-science crowd can use to help fight the good battle against climate disinformation. It’s called <a href="https://www.realitydrop.org">Reality Drop</a>, and it dropped this week from the good truth-tellers at the <a href="http://climaterealityproject.org/">Climate Reality Project</a>.</p>
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<p>Basically, Reality Drop uses competitive gaming techniques to combat climate denial online. It combines the best of science-based written arguments, with this new gaming mechanism to really encourage users to spread climate truth.</p>
<p><img alt="" src="https://www.realitydrop.org/assets/play-instruction.jpg" style="width: 550px; height: 610px;" /></p>
<p>There already exist a handful of great resources for combatting the boilerplate “hot air” arguments of the denial crowd. <a href="http://www.skepticalscience.com/">Skeptical Science</a> has long been a must-use tool, with science-based arguments tailor made to rebut the most common climate denial myths. (And, in fact, Reality Drop was developed in collaboration with Skeptical Science, whose creator John Cook long ago made all of his website’s rebuttals “open source” for anyone to use.) Along similar lines, our friends at Grist have been publishing the very-useful “<a href="http://grist.org/series/skeptics/">How to Talk to a Climate Skeptic</a>” series for years now.</p>
<p>Reality Drop serves not only to deliver the science-based content, but provides really clever and effective web-based tools for any adherent of climate science to better engage in online “discussions” (I’m trying to be civil here) and make sure that the truth shines through the – how should we say? – <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com"><span class="caps">PR</span> pollution that’s clouding climate science</a>. Check out the video explanation:</p>
<p> <iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="281" mozallowfullscreen="" src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/59611654?title=0&amp;byline=0&amp;portrait=0&amp;color=ffffff" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="500"></iframe></p>
<p><a href="http://vimeo.com/59611654">Introducing Reality Drop</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/climatereality">Climate Reality</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">So, in essence, users can find posts online where disinformation is being spread, and “drop” some scientific reality into the conversation. The science-based rebuttals are tailor-made for all of the most common “copy-and-paste” denier talking points.</span></p>
<p>So, say you find a comment by “earthisflat365” on a <em>National Geographic</em> article about Greenland’s ice sheets that says, “…but Antarctica is gaining ice.” Click over to Reality Drop and find the relevant rebuttal – <a href="https://www.realitydrop.org/#myths/62">here it is</a> – and drop some reality.</p>
<p>You don’t even need to stumble upon the myths and lies yourself. Reality Drop gathers a bunch of links daily to posts that could use a dose of truth. Here’s how Maggie Fox, President and <span class="caps">CEO</span> of the Climate Reality Project, describes the tool in action:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Each day, we feature a roundup of climate news from around the world that demands a response. Some articles may contain misleading quotes from a climate denier. And in other cases, distortions of the truth are polluting the comment section. Reality Drop matches each article with the appropriate climate fact. To respond, you simply go to the article, take the response from Reality Drop, and put it into your own words. In only a minute, you’ve helped change the conversation.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>So far, there are 106 myths cataloged on Reality Drop, each one complemented by a thorough, science-backed rebuttal with an abundance of links to actual research and primary source material.<br /><br />
It's more than a one-stop shop for combatting disinformation – it's a game in which just by playing, we all come out winners. </p>
</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-14 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/7265">Climate Reality Project</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/1821">denial</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/2236">deniers</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/12142">reality drop</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/764">al gore</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/12143">maggie fox</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/6473">disinformation</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/7295">communications</a></div></div></div>Sun, 03 Mar 2013 17:00:00 +0000Ben Jervey6920 at http://www.desmogblog.comCalifornia Town’s School Board Wants Politically “Balanced” Curriculum On Climate Changehttp://www.desmogblog.com/california-town-s-school-board-wants-politically-balanced-curriculum-climate-change
<div class="field field-name-field-bimage field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img src="http://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/styles/blog_teaser/public/blogimages/img-head-desk.jpg?itok=gAFfoyE_" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>And the headdesk moment of the week goes to Los Alamitos Unified School District, who recently decided that teachers in the school district would have to prove that their curricula have political balance when teaching controversial subjects, including global warming. Reminiscent of the creation of the universe debacles, teachers will now be required to teach “opposing views” because conservative board members are “concerned that ‘liberal’ faculty members could skew lessons on global warming”, according to <a href="http://losalamitos.patch.com/articles/global-warming">local news coverage</a>. <br /><br />This could potentially become a dangerous trend, considering that several other districts, including the Texas board of education and South Dakota public schools, have taken similar views as well. It might be okay to teach climate skepticism if it indeed was taught and identified as climate misinformation that industries deliberately use to confuse the public, not as just a “dissenting opinion”. However this doesn’t appear to be the case here. Just listen to what one of the school board members has to say:<br /><!--break--><br />“I believe my role is to represent the conservative voice of the community, and I’m not a big fan of global warming. Most teachers are left to center, and if we leave it to teachers to impose their liberal views, then it would make for an unbalanced lesson. Some people believe that global warming is a crock of crap, and others are zealots,” said Jeffrey Barke who, when not practicing for his future career as a Fox News anchor, also sits on the school board.<br /><br />They seem to forget that 98% of respectable climate scientists agree that climate change is happening and is driven by human influences. Not only that, but the <a href="http://environment.yale.edu/climate/publications/knowledge-of-climate-change/">majority</a> of Americans understand climate change is real and also believe it’s man-made, although apparently we’ve identified that the minority reside on the Los Alamitos Unified school board. <br /><br />“Our goal is to have every high school student complete at least one <span class="caps">AP</span> course, and this is a good one to take because it is not heavily math-based,” said Assistant Superintendent Sherry Kropp.<br /><br />Clearly, because if it was based on math, students could find that actual equations prove earth’s climate has been put on steroids, and it’s because we’re spewing billions of tons of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas pollution into the atmosphere everyday, for the past century. It’s not rocket science, it’s a simple calculation that shows that energy in (from the sun) ≠energy out (back into space) on our planet.<br /><br />“We define a topic to be controversial if it has more than one widely held view,” said Kropp, “There are many issues regarding the environment that have become politicized these days and we want kids to be exposed to all sides. An unbalanced lesson would portray only one side. All we want is to have teachers teach the various scientific theories out there.” <br /><br />This would be a nice sentiment if there were legitimate various scientific theories out there, but the industry-backed, Koch-fueled, conservative manifesto that currently exists as an opposing political view is not synonymous with being an opposing scientific theory.<br /><br />This is why science is inherently not a political issue. Everyone wants to debate politics, and there are always multiple political approaches to a problem. The reason there shouldn’t be a debate on climate change anymore is because the debate happened decades ago, between rational, legitimate scientists. Yet skeptics and dirty energy industry apologists still demand a “debate” today, long after the science has been settled. <br /><br />If this were an education-themed metaphor, it would be like that student who waltzes into class 15 minutes late only to start asking questions about a topic that was thoroughly covered 15 minutes ago, when class actually started, and yet is still surprised and affronted when everyone in class, including the teacher, looks at him like he’s a total dunce. <br /><br />The difference between science and religion is clearly distinguishable (except maybe in Texas), and now the distinction between science and politics must also be reviewed, all thanks to wingnut school boards. <br /><br />Sure, discuss opposing political views in a policy class, or debate club, but not in science class, where politics should have no presence. The intelligent design issue went all the way to the courts, and it took a judge to finally nix it as an opposing scientific theory. Let’s not let climate change become the next “intelligent design” controversy.<br /><br />As for the Los Alamitos school board, no phone calls were returned to answer whether they would also be requiring alternate views on such controversial subjects as gravity, how babies are made, or whether or not the moon was made of cheese.</p></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-14 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/627">Fox News</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/745">california</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/939">climate change</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/4313">Liberal</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/5693">Policy</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/6470">education</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/6471">Los Alamitos</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/6472">conservative</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/6473">disinformation</a></div></div></div>Fri, 13 May 2011 20:09:15 +0000Laurel Whitney5352 at http://www.desmogblog.com